Jan 26th- A big thank you to Mostly Fit Mom – I always forget to make pork tenderloin for dinner (healthy yet fancy)- I made pork tenderloin and it cooked in 30 minutes flat- perfect for a weekday meal and was so JUICY!

The rub I put on the pork: 2 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp of oregano, 1 tsp garlic, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tbsp of thyme, salt and pepper to taste.

I also made sweet potato fries and sautéed yellow squash to go with it. AND I forgot to take a picture. I’m really sorry and will try to get better at that.

Jan 27th- Another container salad at work- mixed baby greens (2 cups), 1 beet (I baked it myself), ½ cucumber, olive oil and vinegar.

I should have brought some cheese to go with it, but didn’t think about that when I was packing the ingredients at 6am. I almost forgot to take a picture of the salad; I’ve pretty much finished all the cucumbers already.

Despite the fact that my teeth are PINK right now, I still love fresh baked beets!! I ate my leftover pork tenderloin and sweet potato fries with it.

My first strength training routine last night proved itself well- it’s 1pm and I’m ALREADY getting a little sore in my chest and upper arms (I DID PUSH-UPS!!). It’s a good sore. I’m not complaining. That means my workout WORKED.

I know this might sound crazy, but I love the soreness you get the next day after working muscles for the first time that haven’t been worked in a LONG time.

Jan 28th- Did my walk/run interval training last night, I felt GREAT after it. And my heart rate recovery time in between jogging is going down faster than it used to. That’s a GOOD SIGN!

Jan 29th- Wanted an old favorite for breakfast this morning. I like to take Sara Lee Delightful Wheat bread, top it with manchego cheese and toast it til the cheese bubbles. I take it out of the toaster oven and drizzle honey on it.

I was out of manchego cheese, so I used gruyere. It was still delicious.

Jan 30th- The hubby won free tickets to the OKC Thunder vs. Miami Heat game today. Thank goodness I made reservations at the OKC Museum of Arts Café.

We had a delicious brunch (sorry, no pictures). We had the ceviche, quiche and orange French toast with extra fruit. The ceviche was okay, but Bolero is still the best in OKC for ceviche in my opinion. We then watched our boys lose after being neck to neck the whole game.

To make up for our loss, I made a comforting dinner. I made “meatloaf” mini’s (recipe from Cooking Light)…I did switch it up though- instead of ketchup, I used sweet BBQ sauce.

I paired it with garlic mashed potatoes, sautéed okra, a dinner roll, a salad and a glass of red wine. These meatloaf minis were outstanding. They may have been the best recipe I have ever gotten from Cooking Light.

I paired them with a bottle of Woods and Waters Shiraz (made right here in OK). Let me be clear, Oklahoma CAN NOT make good wine. All we have is really, really fruity wines that verge on the edge of disaster in most cases. However, this Shiraz is probably the driest wine you will find in Oklahoma. I really liked it for an Okie-wine.

FEB 10th- Well kids, as I’m sure you’re aware, we’ve had 2 snowstorms in the last 8 days AND I got a fever on the first of February which ended up being the flu, which went to my throat, which went to my lungs and I ended up with walking pneumonia. Fun, fun.

I haven’t been able to run or exercise in over a week (I still can’t exercise yet- can’t breathe properly), but I’m going to try to make the best of it. While I was at home and sick, I did make some fun dinners. Here’s one for your enjoyment.

Since I was sick, I wanted to eat a lot of veggies. I decided to make turkey, pasta and salad. I used canned artichoke quarters, half a yellow onion, a full red pepper and some kalamata olives for the pasta sauce (all tossed and heated in olive oil, salt, crushed red pepper flakes).

For the spinach salad, I tried a new dressing recipe- 2 TBSPS olive oil, juice from a lemon (didn’t measure, but I’m assuming it was around a tablespoon), 1 TBPS of Dijon mustard, salt and pepper and parmesan cheese. And yes, that is Farrell Farms bread you see on that plate.

After heating the veggies, I mixed them with some gluten free penne pasta. I just wanted to try the penne…it was good, but falls apart if you cook it more than “al dente” which sucked for me because I like my noodles extra soft.

I made Turkey Piccata to go with the pasta. The sauce involved some butter, white wine, lemon and capers, but I can’t remember the exact ingredients because it was a while back- BUT the recipe came out of the Cooking Light Magazine in which they featured Chicken Piccata. I just subbed in turkey breasts.

I wish I had some wine to pair with this meal because it was outstanding, however, I was sick and the wine kind of burned my throat when I took a swig of it.

NOTE*- I’m going to have to have my tonsils out and several other medical procedures and during that time, I may not be able to keep up with my guest blogs. I will keep you all posted on my healthy journey though! Thanks!!

If you’re training for a 5k (or longer) and have to take over a week off of training due to illness, how long does it take to bounce back to where you left off?